Improvement in spittoon-tongs



v A. H. SEIPT.

Improvement in Spittoon Tongs.

I. N0 H5226 yPa'ientedllune20,1871)y UNITED STATEs PATENT OFFICE.

ABRAHAM H. SEIPT, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN SPITTOON-TONGS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 116,226, dated June 20, 1871.

The object of the invention is to provide for.

public use a cheap and convenient instrument by which spittoons can be moved from place to place without the necessity of handling them, and without danger of their tipping so as to spill their contents. To this end the invention consists inthe construction of a pair of spring-tongs, having their legs terminating in wide, iiat, bent-up hooks, as hereinafter described, which hooks, being pressed together, can be inserted into the mouth ofthe spittoon, and, then, being allowed to spring apart, will catch under the edges of the opening and enable the operator to raise the vessel and carry it from place to place by means of the tongs, which become, as it were, a convenient handle to the spittoon for the time being.

My invention does not consist in the use of the tongs alone when not provided with the broad ilat hooks, nor in the use of such hooks alone when not connected with spring-tongs, but in the combination of the broad hooks and spring-tongs in one instrument adapted to the purpose referred to, as I will now proceed to describe.

In the drawing, t a. represent the broad iiat hooks, turned outward and upward from the lower end of the tongs, the body of the tongs being made in a single bent piece, as shown in Figs. l and 2; or in two pieces pivoted together, as shown in Figs.3 and 4 5 the precise construction of this part being immaterial, provided it has a part shaped conveniently for a handle, as at b, Fig. l, c c', Fig. 3, orB B', Fig. 4; and provided also that the legs are caused to spring apart either by the elasticity of the material itself or by the action of a spring, s, applied for the purpose.

Now, if the tongs were constructed in the manner described, the hooks not being iattened and widened, but made of round Wire,

the result would be that they would bear at only two points, one on each side of the mouth of the spittoon,and when the vesselwas raised upon them it would be liable to tip and slip and spill out its contents. This might be remedied by attaching lateral prongs to the hooks so asto make the instrument bear at four diferent points around the mouth of the spittoon, and thus hold the latter firmly and evenly. Such construction would, however, be expensive, and the instrument thus made would be inconvenient and of awkward appearance.

I do not claim such a method for making the hooks as my invention; but I make them broad and fiat, either by bending up the wide flat legs, as in Fig. l, or by iiattening out the endsof the tongs, as in Figs. 2, 3, and4. The effect of flattening out the hooks is that they then bear for some distance alongside of the spittoon-mouth, or, if the latter is round, they bear at four points in its periphery, namely, at both edges of each hook, thereby holding the vessel securely, so that it cannot easily be tipped, and preventing all danger of accident from this cause. The instrument can in this manner be easily and cheaply made, and it is very neat in appearance.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, isv The broad iiat hooks a a', in combination with the spring-tongs, substantially as described, and for the purposes specified.

ABRM. H. SEIPT.

Witnesses :V

` JOHN D. HALL,

WM. P. HIBBARD. 

